}
Meiji
By Robert Amos
I dropped in to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria once more to bask
in the starlight of Pat Martin Bates’s lightbox skyscapes (until July
10). That’s just one of the half dozen fascinating exhibitions there. I
also found myself engrossed by an extensive show of the best student
work of Victoria area high school students (until May 29). I spent
about ten minutes looking into a cabinet of English Delftware in the
old mansion. And then I discovered The Art of Meiji Japan (until August
14).
For about 250 years - from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Victoria - Japan
was virtually closed to the outside world. Then, in 1853, Commodore
Perry of the United States sailed into Tokyo Bay with four
awe-inspiring “black ships” and forced Japan to sign the first of many
trade treaties with western nations. The Japanese military dictator,
the Tokugawa Shogun, had a rule of 250 years brought to an end; the new
monarch, the Emperor Meiji, reigned from 1868 to 1912.
Those 45 years of the Meiji reign “marked an astonishing metamorphosis
from primitive feudal state to modern industrial and military power,”
Barry Till has written in the catalogue. According to him, it truly was
“one of the most extraordinary periods in the history of the modern
world.”
With this Meiji show, the gallery is ablaze with strident colours,
impacted imagery and amazing and amusing iconography. Dominating the
walls are dozens of woodcut prints from the gallery’s collection, many
of them panoramic triptychs.
The woodcut was a popular art form by which the people of Japan learned
about the novelties which were flooding in to change their lives.
Thousands of such images were created, sold for a penny a piece or
included in the new medium of newspapers. The old woodcut technology
was soon to be replaced by photography, but not yet. Even during this
Meiji era, the traditional soft colours of vegetable dyes were being
superceded by the harsh colours of imported aniline dyes - firecracker
red, deep purple and mineral greens.
For the first time, the Imperial family was exposed to the public gaze:
no longer remote royal personnages, they were now frequently depicted
as part of this nation-building popular art. To assure its place in the
modern world, Japan decided to build military might. They took on China
and then Japan in warfare. A necessary flood of patriotic spirit in
Japan was pumped up by these prints which brought news of victories -
always victories - to the people back at home. The “special effects” of
rockets and gunfire and sinking ships look like the precursor of Marvel
Comics and kung-fu movies.
An endearing naivete draws us into a realm of Japanese art, from which
the expected esthetic of quiet restraint has been utterly overwhelmed
by an eagerness to join the modern world. Clearly this is a popular art
form, not at all the tea ceremony and flower arranging which we
associate with the Japanese.
With the end of samurai culture, and the abandonment of Buddhism, old
art forms fell on hard times. Sword-making all but disappeared, and the
world’s finest metalworkers took to making figurative metal sculptures
of extraordinary fineness. Ivory carving was no longer required for
kimono accesories, and was now put in the service of creating
mantlepiece decorations.
For the first time Japanese goods were shown at expositions in
Europe and America. To meet the new markets there, Japanese art and
craft determined to please new tastes. For example, foreign markets in
the high Victorian age seemed to crave Satsuma pottery, overembellished
with gold and enamel: a decorative style of dubious taste, awkward
shape, busy design and gaudy colour. Dubious taste, perhaps, but it is
intriguing to see these Japanese artifacts crafted to meet a rough
estimate of what our grandparents seemed to desire.
If you are interested in Japanese art, history or popular culture,
you’ll be drawn in to this dense and extensive show. It’s a funhouse of
kitsch, the result of cultures in collision. There’s a locomotive with
square wheels, and a doting daddy dressed in yukata robe and straw
“boater” hat. Unmistakably, it’s a compendium of knockout graphic
effects - polka dot cherry blossoms, rockets to rival the fourth of
July, and a dress code straight out of Gilbert and Sullivan.
You can tell I enjoyed it.
___________________________________________
This weekend Fired Up! takes place at the Metchosin Community Hall (May
28, 29 - 10 am to 5 pm, 4401 Williams Head Road, Metchosin, 385-9029).
Now in it’s 21st year, this is the most prestigious pottery show on
this island. A core group of the best ceramic artists annually invite
their most admired peers for a two day show. This year’s theme is Art
in the Garden. Get there early!
___________________________________________
Copyright © 2005Robert Amos
Robert Amos is an artist and art writer who lives in Victoria, B.C.. He can be contacted by
e-mail and you can view his paintings at
www.robertamos.com